Arranged by "file"
or "jacket," similar to the traditional
organization of paper "files." If users will continue
to be encouraged to "retrieve a file" like they did
with paper, all the documents in a file need to be kept together
to provide efficient retrieval. When a new file is started, space
must be reserved for additional items. As documents are added,
they are stored near the rest of the documents that are used together
- "in the same file". The down side is that, unless
you can predict exactly what documents will be stored, the wrong
amount of space will be reserved - either it won't all be used,
or you will run out. Therefore lots of time is spent reorganizing
the optical discs to recover and reallocate space, which of course
requires lots of media for WORM discs. Another potential problem
is the write-life of a disc - see Optical Disc Life,
below.

Arranged chronologically,
so that each optical disc is filled completely in the sequence
the documents are received. Documents that arrive at different
times are not stored together, even if they are related. If the
use of the documents can be focused on retrieval of individual
documents rather than entire files, this organization is much
more efficient in the use of space and in later file purge.

Traditional office procedures are often based on retrieving a
complete paper file. That has been a convenient and efficient
process for many years, assuring that the related papers are kept
together, even if only a single document is required. However,
there is an alternative. When a user requests a file, they can
be shown a list of the documents, not the documents themselves.
The user can then select which documents actually need to be viewed.

Customer service often requires a single document or small group of documents, not the entire file. A search for particular documents is more efficient from a table of contents than from viewing individual image or paper documents. Of course, this assumes that the table of contents has a basic description of the document, such as "Correspondence from the insured about the automobile policy, received 3/4/95", not just "Correspondence".

In practice, we found that many people who must "review the entire file" actually spend little or no time on many of the documents. For example, an insurance underwriter "reviewing a file" to evaluate the degree of risk in an automobile insurance policy probably does not need to do a detailed examination of a change of address notice, the grade reports sent to support a good student discount, copies of previous policies, and so forth. Therefore, if the user is willing to work from the table of contents, only those documents that actually need to be reviewed completely can be delivered from wherever they are stored.

Audits for quality assurance or regulatory compliance often
really need to look at all documents. This is conveniently served
by "file oriented" optical discs, but could create an
excessive load on an optical disc system that stores documents
chronologically, as it jumps around locating each of the documents.
There is a solution. Since these audits are rarely surprises (like
a customer service phone call), they adapt well to batch processing.
All of the files to be reviewed (in a given day or audit) are
identified, and the list of documents required is sorted by optical
disc. Each optical disc can then be loaded just once to retrieve
all the documents from the disc. Copies of the required documents
are moved to high performance magnetic storage for quick access
in the review.

An image system must certainly allow any or all documents to be
retrieved, but no system should encourage the user to casually
"retrieve all." One trick is to make the user select
document 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 etc. rather than providing a single
command to get all the documents. Not only will this allow the
more efficient chronological organization of the optical discs,
but by reducing the number of images retrieved, could substantially
reduce the load on the image system and the network.

A typical business will use an on-line computer system to keep
their records in a conventional database, not on paper or in an
image system. The on-line system represents the current state
of the business, while the image system provides the documentation
of changes to the records. For example, an application for life
insurance becomes part of the policy, as well as being the source
of much of the information in the data processing system. The
"working" information on coverages, current address,
and current premiums are in the computer system. The application
for life insurance will probably be in the image file for the
entire life of the policy, perhaps even 75 years.

Many documents have a short life (3 or 7 years) even if the overall
file exists for a long time. Routine correspondence, such as inquiries
or change of address, may need to be kept for 7 years, but not
75. When the documents are stored chronologically on the disc,
all the documents that arrived at approximately the same time
are on the same disc. Seven years later (or whenever) it is easy
to purge the disc by copying only the "permanent" documents
to new media.

Continuing with the life insurance example, when a death claim
is paid, the record is updated, and the death certificates and
other documentation are added to the image file. It is only 7
years later, when the statute of limitations under contract law
prevents further appeal, that the image files may really be purged.
Beyond the images, many companies keep at least some of their
data for 15-20 years, for statutory reporting and statistical
analysis. Therefore at least parts of the on-line record may be
around for a long time - even longer than the optical disc images.

Most optical discs are guaranteed readable for 10-30 years, with
some as long as 100 years. However, some limit writing to only
the first few years. Therefore there may be a problem on discs
organized by file when adding documents 5-10 years later. Since
disks organized chronologically are filled near the beginning
of their life, this problem does not occur.

Although 30 or 100 years sounds like a good life, the disc drives
and the associated computer hardware and software will not be
supported for 100 years. Optical disc technology is constantly
improving - one could argue that there are major steps (generations)
of technology every couple years. Since optical discs are relatively
slow and have a very large capacity, conversion takes a very long
time. Therefore most users avoid conversion whenever a new technology
emerges. A system may need to support the new technology for new
information, while keeping the older discs for the older documents.
By the third or fourth generation (7-10 years) it may be wise
to discontinue maintenance on the older drives, but (with the
legal statute of limitations) this is a good period for purging
older documents from the discs. Following this logic, most documents
are written to optical disc once in their life, and purged from
the discs as the technology becomes obsolete. Only the "permanent"
documents are converted to new technology storage, only every
7-10 years.